Psychonauts 2 Dev Diary Details First Playable Level

By John Jacques 23 August 2018

It took Psychonauts 2 less than a day to procure a million dollars via crowdfunding two years ago, and Double Fine Productions has worked hard to show fans that the studio hasn’t been slacking in that time. Despite the last video-based development update arriving a while ago, Psychonauts 2 developers Tim Schafer and Zak McClendon are now giving fans a thorough look at one of the game’s earlier levels. For the first time ever, the duo show off a completely playable level within the game, detailing some of the finer points about coding, modelling, music, goat butts, and more.

The most discernable difference between Psychonauts and its successor is the sheer size of the map: the first playable area features plenty of wide open space (certainly much larger than fans will be accustomed to) filled with plenty of climbable surfaces. As the duo progress through the quarry area, Tim and Zach explain that a sense of precariousness was imperative for the platformer, detailing how they wanted to put an emphasis on how far of a drop it would be from certain areas as players jump and swing their way through trees and shrubs. Some of the camera work looked like it needs a bit of fine-tuning, but the game itself appears to be coming along nicely.

Interested gamers can take a look at the first playable Psychonauts 2 level below:

The development team revealed that the quarry location will take place after the game’s introductory act, where a presumably more traditional tutorial experience will take place. Once players reach the quarry, however, things will open up significantly. The playable level features plenty of wall jumps, paragliding, and combat sequences which Zak McClendon solves with fire and rocks. Combined with a snippet about goat butts and the fact that their lead composer was just told to make “hopeful exploration” music, it makes for quite the memorable video.

Many fans look at the intellectual property with nostalgia goggles, which can be a big caveat when a developer seeks to expand upon the universe. If the fan reaction for the video so far is any indication, however, Double Fine Productions has nothing to worry about with the title’s longstanding fans – but only time will tell if can attract new ones too.

Psychonauts 2is poised to launch on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2018.